Fullstack Academy

Fullstack Academy

About

About

Fullstack Academy offers full-time and part-time immersive software engineering bootcamps and cyber security bootcamps, with campuses in New York City, Chicago, and online. Fullstack's software engineering courses cover advanced JavaScript-oriented technologies and computer science topics including compiler theory, logic gates, and building an operating system. The cyber bootcamp covers encryption, networking, system architecture, cryptography, risk detection, and more. Fullstack Academy offers flexible options for college students and those who wish to continue working while learning modern tech skills. The Summer of Code program is an accelerated version of the immersive bootcamp for college students on summer break.

The full- and part-time immersives in NY and Chicago are for intermediate programmers who’ve learned the basics before applying, while the cyber and university bootcamps are specifically designed for beginners. Bootcamp Prep classes are available to help students prepare for admissions. To apply, candidates should submit an application via the website, take an online coding assessment (software engineering bootcamp) or a basic logical reasoning test (cyber bootcamp), then participate in a video interview.

Fullstack Academy programs aim to combine a cutting-edge technical curriculum with career counseling to make sure students can both do a technical job, and get a technical job. Fullstack hosts a Demo Day, which includes speed interviewing sessions, and the careers team helps students connect with the right people, interview successfully, and negotiate the best offer possible.

Bootcamp Prep in a Month

**NOTE: Prep In a Month courses are best for folks who have some previous experience with programming.** Fullstack Academy's Bootcamp Prep courses are free with refund (which means you'll get back everything you've paid upon completion of the course) and will prepare you for the full-time software engineering programs at both Fullstack and Grace Hopper (our all-women's school), plus Fullstack's part-time Flex program.
These courses teach the fundamentals of programming and show you how to use JavaScript to solve real-world coding problems. Best of all, they're taught by working developers who once graduated from one of Fullstack's programs, so you can really get a feel for the environment we foster and the kinds of smart, driven, generous people our community is made up of.

Financing

Deposit

N/A

Refund / Guarantee

Full refund upon course completion.

Getting in

Minimum Skill Level

Advanced-Beginner

Prep Work

Includes a 10-hr prep workshop. Not required, but highly recommended to help students get the most out of class.

Placement Test

No

Interview

No

More Start Dates

September 16, 2019 - ChicagoApply by September 9, 2019

October 9, 2019 - ChicagoApply by October 3, 2019

September 16, 2019 - New York CityApply by September 9, 2019

October 9, 2019 - New York CityApply by October 3, 2019

September 16, 2019 - OnlineApply by September 9, 2019

October 9, 2019 - OnlineApply by October 3, 2019

Bootcamp Prep in a Week

**NOTE: Prep In a Week courses are best for folks who have some previous experience with programming.** Fullstack Academy's Bootcamp Prep courses are free with refund (which means you'll get back everything you've paid upon completion of the course) and will prepare you for the full-time software engineering programs at both Fullstack and Grace Hopper (our all-women's school), plus Fullstack's part-time Flex program.
These courses teach the fundamentals of programming and show you how to use JavaScript to solve real-world coding problems, and best of all? They're taught by working developers who once graduated from one of Fullstack's programs, so you can really get a feel for the environment we foster and the kinds of smart, driven, generous people our community is made up of.

Financing

Deposit

N/A

Refund / Guarantee

Full refund upon course completion.

Getting in

Minimum Skill Level

Advanced-beginners

Prep Work

Includes a 10-hr prep workshop. Not required, but highly recommended to help students get the most out of class.

Flex offers an opportunity to complete the rigorous Fullstack immersive program, but over a six-month span, while keeping a full-time job. Students attend class in-person two nights per week, and remotely one night per week. Each month will have one immersive weekend, where Flex students come to campus both Saturday and Sunday. The other three weekends will consist of remote work -- not requiring live attendance. These remote weekends will utilize learning tools that work well in that format: video lectures and workshop reviews, solo coding workshops, and even pair-programming with classmates using virtual collaboration tools. This remote work will be self-paced -- completed by a deadline, but on the student’s schedule.

The Fullstack Cyber Bootcamp is a full-time, 17-week training program that prepares students to get cyber security jobs as pen testers and SOC analysts after graduation. Operated by Fullstack Academy, one of the longest-running coding bootcamps in the nation, the Fullstack Cyber Bootcamp is part of New York City’s $100-million-dollar Cyber NYC initiative, which aims to transform the City of New York into a global cyber hub. In keeping with this mission, the City is sponsoring 24 low-income New Yorkers to attend the first cohort of the Fullstack Cyber Bootcamp tuition-free. Head to the web page for eligibility information.

Financing

Deposit

2,000

Scholarship

Full scholarships to our inaugural cohort (including deposit refund upon program completion) available for qualifying NYers. Made possible by the City of New York's CyberNYC initiative. See website for eligibility information & additional scholarships.

Getting in

Minimum Skill Level

Beginner

Prep Work

Take our introduction to the industry, Hacking 101, before you interview: https://cyber.fullstackacademy.com/prepare/hacking-101

Placement Test

Yes

Interview

Yes

More Start Dates

September 30, 2019 - New York CityApply by August 19, 2019

NYC Web Development Fellowship

In partnership with the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline, the NYC Web Development Fellowship will award ~40 NYC residents tuition-free admission to Fullstack's award-winning Software Engineering program. This curriculum has been proven successful -- Fullstack graduates are now working at companies like Google, Venmo, Facebook, Amazon, and LinkedIn, as well as hundreds of innovative small- and mid-size tech companies. Learn more about the fellowship as well as eligibility restrictions on the Fullstack website: https://www.fullstackacademy.com/nyc-fellowship

Fullstack Academy’s flagship course, the Full-Time Software Engineering Immersive is a 17-week career accelerator. Through an advanced curriculum and project-based structure, students learn today’s cutting edge development technologies. The Fullstack Immersive prepares graduates for software engineer roles at top-tier technology companies. Our JavaScript-driven curriculum immerses you in the latest web technologies such as Node.js, React.js, and postgreSQL. You bring the energy, curiosity, and dedication — we'll provide a world-class school for becoming an expert software developer.

Summer of Code is a coding education program uniquely designed for ambitious college students seeking to supplement their traditional education by learning real world skills and building a portfolio of impressive projects. You bring the energy, curiosity and fierce dedication — we'll provide a world-class school for becoming an expert level coder in one summer.

Financing

Deposit

N/A

Financing

Fullstack Academy has partnerships with Skills Fund and Upstart

Scholarship

Built-in $2,000 student scholarship; $1,000 scholarship for women.

Getting in

Minimum Skill Level

College students only.

Prep Work

4-week Foundations course

Placement Test

Yes

Interview

Yes

Scholarships

Scholarships

1 Scholarship

$500 Fullstack Academy Scholarship

Course Report is excited to offer an exclusive Fullstack Academy scholarship for $500 off tuition!

Eligibility

Offer is only valid for new applicants. Applicants who have already submitted an application cannot claim this scholarship.

Qualifying Courses

Software Engineering Immersive (Chicago)

500 off

Apply

Fill out the application below to submit this scholarship to Fullstack Academy.

I was part of the first WDF cohort. We spent almost 5 months on the NYC campus going first through the foundational materials and later through the main curriculum. Fullstack gave me a very solid understanding of software engineering principles, and most importantly, taught me how to be self sufficient.

The instructors and the stuff were excellent. I was never bored but was continuosly challenged. The level of students at FS is very high, yet everybody was always super supportive.

I accepted a job offer at arguably one of the toughest companies to get in after about 4 months after graduation.

If you are thinking about becoming a professional developer, I can't recommend Fullstack enough. With that being said, I want to empisize that your results will be directly proportionate to the effort you put in (during the program and especially during the job search).

I attended the Fullstack immersive (through the NYC Web Development Fellowship). The instructors were fantastic, and my fellow classmates were a constant inspiration. It's a great experience not just because of what you learn (which is obviously a lot), but because you have an opportunity to be around so many smart and driven people at various life stages that decided to pursue programming. As such, Fullstack is very challenging!

I couldn't have asked for a better outcome. I ended up receiving an offer from a company that I interviewed with during the career day organized by the school after graduation. I've been working now for almost 3 months as a software developer. My current job is not easy, and I feel Fullstack helped me develop a strong technical foundation and the mindset to be able to build on my knowledge and improve each day.

My background was as a fundraiser in arts and culture nonprofits. Verynon-technical. After hitting a bit of a wall in my career, I was tipped off my husband and some friends about careers in tech. Curious, I started playing around with coding a bit on my own. I visited info sessions for a couple of other Chicago bootcamps (Coding Dojo, and now-closed DevBootcamp). Fullstack grabbed me for a few reasons -- the admissions were competitive, you needed to know some JavaScript basics to be accepted, and it was going to dig hard into one very in-demand stack. Coding Dojo boasts learning 3 full stacks in 3 months, but I wanted depth over breadth. (A friend of mine attended Coding Dojo -- I had surpassed him in JavaScript knowledge by the third week at Fullstack.)

So, I enrolled in Fullstack's Bootcamp Prep course, which was a bit exhausting when paired with a full-time job, but was a great opportunity to dip my toe into what Fullstack would really be like, as well as see if this was really something that I wanted to do. I was hooked, and applied.

Now, for the first half of the program, it's all about learning the full stack (JavaScript, Node, Express, Postgres, React, Redux). I felt off-kilter every day, but the key is that they're going to throw a LOT at you. Absorb what you can. Take the time in the evenings and on weekends to practice. You won't retain everything, and that's OK. Just keep going. For the second half, you just build build build, both alone and in a group. This not only gives you 3 great pieces for your portfolio, but also hefty relevant experience beyond the theoretical.

Career prep is pretty good, including "Launch Day," where you can meet potential employers through speed-dating-like interviews. I didn't get a job through it, but it did connect me to a few great people that I ended up getting lunch with later on -- and it was a great way to rip off the interviewing band-aid, so to speak.

In the end, I was interviewing with 3 companies, and accepted a job offer from 1 just 4 weeks after graduating.

Great things:

You learn a very in-demand stack, and are well-prepared going into the job hunt.

Knowledgeable, warm, funny instructors.

The rest of my cohort. An incredibly fun, supportive, and smart group, almost 50/50 split of men and women, all different ages/backgrounds/hometowns/former professions/levels of expertise. (Disclaimer, this degree of diversity may be fairly unique.)

Not-as-great things:

One of my biggest weaknesses coming out of this program was my ability to speak technically. At the end of the program, we had mock technical interviews which revealed this to me. Personally, would have appreciated the opportunity to practice technical interviews more throughout the program.

Advice (if you decide to go with Fullstack):

It's hard to be an adult who has several working years under her belt, who knows her stuff, and suddenly be in a position where clicking a button doesn't do what you want it to do. It's humbling and uncomfortable. Be kind to yourself! And don't compare your progress to those around you. Focus on you and your learning, or you'll go crazy.

You will get out of this program what you put in! Take ownership of your own education. Fullstack will give you the tools, but you won't magically emerge a software engineer just from showing up.

Know yourself, and know how you work best. I preferred to get in very early (morning person) than work late. Use that knowledge to your advantage.

Trust Fullstack's process. It all comes together. Just keep working and moving forward.

Last summer (2017) I decided it was time for a full-fledged career change. I had a few ideas of what I might want to get into, but kept coming back to the idea of programming. I took a C++ class in high school and really loved it - but never did anything with it. I enrolled in Fullstack's Bootcamp Prep course and was instantly hooked. My journey from CPA to Software Engineer had begun.

I entered Fullstack's Immersive Software Engineering program in October of 2017. It was one of the best experiences of my life. The curriculum is very well thought out and presented in an order that builds upon the foundations and helps you to truly grasp and use the large amount of materials that you get through in 16 weeks.

One thing that I loved about Fullstack is that they have a competitive admissions process. In my experience, this resulted in a cohort full of brilliant people who were extremely driven. This provided me with an environment where I was motivated to stay on top of the material but also had a room full of rock stars to work through problems with. I think Fullstack does a great job of finding a personality fit for their program as well which led us to work great together and have some fun outside of the classroom as well.

The program is tough. There is a ton to get through in a short amount of time. But I believe that the learning model they have in place is revolutionary and is the main reason I can now develop fullstack web applications. While it can be difficult at times, the support system is great - your peers, your TAs and your instructors all want you to succeed and can help you with anything from technical questions to interview prep and everything in between.

The program is also very adaptive to the real world and you can be sure that you're learning the most valuable and in-demand skills. This makes you a competitive candidate in the job market once you graduate. In my experience, I ended up receiving 2 job offers, both of which I was very excited about, within 3 weeks of finishing the program!

My biggest piece of advice is to trust their system. They're great at what they do and truly want you to succeed. I did my research and due dilligence and selected Fullstack because it seemed like it was the best coding bootcamp out there. After going through the program I can say that it truly is an amazing place filled with smart people and if you too choose to go through Fullstacks' software engineering immersive program you will learn more than you ever thought possible.

Fullstack is the single best coding bootcamp in Chicago. They have their sh*t together. They constantly work on updating and refining their curriculum. The skills you learn are highly relevant to actual jobs in the industry. The instructors are knowledgeable.

After graduating in December, I didn't start job searching until the first week of January. By February 15, I had my first offer at a company that hit all my requirements, paid a solid salary, and was still interviewing with 5 other companies. Keep in mind, I'm more socially-skilled than most as I used to work in marketing consulting for 4 years, so your results may vary based on your temperament and skillset.

On attending the academy:
1) It's very liberal. As a conservative/libertarian, it was painful sitting through all the 'everyone matters, women empowerment, be careful with your language,' talk. Look, I'm here to learn relevant skills so I can get a job in software engineering. I didn't come here to learn your ideology or engage in thought policing. Depending on who you are, this can be a drawback or a bonus. Knowing what I know now, I still would have attended Fullstack Academy because it is the best option in the city.
2) If you don't live in the city, get a place within 15 minutes commute of the academy. At most, 30 minutes. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT try and commute from the suburbs. I lived in Gurnee, IL and took the train to the city everyday. It was about 3.5-4 hours of total commuting time each day. You need all the time you can to work on the coursework and relax. It will be stressful. You need your sleep. And everything will be worth all the pain and effort.
3) Invest time in the relationships you'll build with people there. Everyone is pretty high quality, generally has their life together, and will be beneficial to keep in your life. I'm working on a side project with a classmate and regularly talk to a few classmates I've had. Adding more smart, motivated, and hard working people to your life is never a bad idea.
4) Plan for 3-6 months of expenses after Fullstack for finding a job. Fullstack won't give you a job on a silver platter - you'll still have to work for it. Talk to the career counselor at the Chicago campus. Most college career counselors are utterly useless. Thankfully, this is nothing like college. The Chicago counselor linked me to a number of opportunities within the first 2 months post-graduation. Listen to them.

I had no computer science or technical professional experience prior to doing Fullstack Academy (FSA). I did the online/remote immersive program from my home. I graduated at the end of October, grinded hard in the job search for about three months with little traction (Nov/Dec is not a good time to look for a job), and then finally at the end of January, I got slammed with interviews and managed to land four (four!) job offers in two weeks for software engineering roles, including at two major corporations with huge software departments, both of which started at $70k with excellent benefits (adjusted for cost of living, that's equivalent to about 140-160K in Manhattan or 125-145K in San Francisco). But I ended up taking a full-stack support dev role for $65k at a small-ish custom software company because their work and tech stack more so aligned with my professional interests and goals. I've been on the job for almost a month now and I gotta say, I feel like I have been well prepared. I've been able to begin contributing and pushing code to production relatively quickly. And the company has only recently switched to using React, Redux, Webpack, and some other tools I learned at FSA, so I am actually more knowledgeable than some of the more senior devs about how to use them.

It's hard to know if FSA was the best possible choice. If I were to choose again, there are some new schools now that I'd strongly consider. But FSA has certainly worked out for me. I enjoyed my experience and think that their curriculum and instructors are top-notch. They go in depth in all the right areas, and yet they also expose you to the broad landscape that is the software engineering profession. That broad base of knowldege is just as important as the in-depth stuff they teach. And I love that I was able to do the whole thing remotely. If you're skeptical that a remote program could possibly be as good as the on-site program, please trust me: It is just as good if not better. There's less distraction, it's cheaper, more comfortable, and it forces you to really get your Git workflow down.

They do provide career support to prepare you for the job hunt / interviews and advise you along the way, and I think they do a pretty good job of it. But there's nothing they can really do to help you get a job. That's on you. And finding a job sucks, so be prepared. The average seems to be about 3 months, but some people land one immediately, and some take 6+ months. There's too many factors to know how long it'll take. Just do what is within your control, be patient, and put on your optimism hat, because you're going to get rejected or ignored for all kinds of stupid reasons before you hear from a sensible human being who is actually qualified to assess your capabilities.

The only changes I'd like to see at FSA are for the program to be a bit longer to re-enforce things through repetition, get into more advance concepts and disciplines, and provide more opportunities for students to build out their portfolio. But that would of course drive costs up, which touches on my only other gripe: I wish they would switch to a deferred tuition model like App Academy, Thinkful, Lambda School, and many others. It's an obviously more beneficial model for business and students. Also, I was actually pretty disappointed with the state of my portfolio by the time I graduated. I didn't have anything that really looked show-worthy, not even my cap-stone. Your projects are mostly done in teams, so you're at the mercy of your teammates' skills and work ethic. Lucky for me, a lot of employers didn't even take the time to look at what I made and relied more heaviliy on technical interviews. (On that point, don't waste time fixing up your projects after graduation. Perfect your resume/LinkedIn. Write to-the-point cover letters for every application. Get a hold of an actual person however/whenever possible. Keep studying/practicing/commiting code.)

Now, as great as FSA is, you need to understand that your growth and ultimate success or failure depends primarily on your ability and/or willingness to prioritize your training and sacrifice your hobbies, relationships, and relaxation. The hard proof of that could be seen in the fact that about 25% of my cohort was held back because they did not pass the junior exam to graduate to senior phase. The problem was not that they weren't smart enough, they just had too much else going on and weren't focused. But even if you pass the exams, that only means you've got the minimum pre-requisites down. I appreciate that they at least set a reasonably high bar to get through the program, so you can feel confident that you know what you're doing when you graduate. Other schools that don't set high graduation standards (or any at all!) are doing their students a great disservice. But don't rest on your laurels just because you pass some test. If you go through FSA (or any school) with an attitude where you're content just scraping by, you're robbing yourself of a great deal of knowledge and expertise you could have gained by reading more, asking more questions, putting more hours into your project. It's three months. You'll be alright without Netflix, video games, outtings with friends, etc for three months.

With all that said, I think FSA is worth the price. Six months and $18,000 later, and I'm making $25,000 more per year and doing something I atually enjoy for a living at a cool company. I'd say that was a smart investment.

I deeply enjoyed my bootcamp experience at Fullstack. The Grace Hopper program in particular had a friendly, collegial atomsphere and a lack of intellectual arrogance and competitiveness that helped it go down. If you have any thoughts about taking the full time program and having time for other things in your life, put those aside, it was VERY full-on. I learned more than I could believe at the end, and I did some cool projects that I'm still proud of. And more than anything, I now have a six figure job in tech and a bright career ahead of me.

All that being said I do have some criticisms:

- Some of the teachers don't have any teaching training or experience and are honestly people from the industry who are slumming. Those people should be shown the door.

- The administration/teachers tend to soft pedal things which I found very annoying. Just be real! The more information students have the better decisions we can make for ourselves. Don't be vague about things, students' futures depend on it.

I graduated from Fullstack Academy in December of 2017 from 1709-WDF. WDF stands for the Web Development Fellowship. I was part of a full-scholarship program, sponsored by the NYC Tech Talent Pipeline where I had to compete against all of NYC for a spot to get into the program. It was extremeley competitive and one of the hardest things I ever had to do in my life.

Fullstack was my dream coding school and you get what you put into it. I studied every single day since Day 1 in bootcamp-prep and never stopped until I landed my job as a Software Engineer at Unified. Fullstack teaches you EVERYTHING you need to know about software engineering and they prep you EXTREMELY WELL! All you need to do is put in the work and 'trust the process'.

It's going to be intense but it's intense for a reason. Besides teaching you all the latest frameworks, technologies and the most updated JavaScript, Fullstack is the best at teaching you how to learn. And forces you to become comfortable with being uncomfortable, just like real life and just like being a real Software Engineer. If you don't know something, don't panic, just look it up. Google it. Read articles on how other people have done it. Go to Stack Overflow and interact with the community. Be self-sufficient.

Fullstack is the best thing I have ever done. It was much more fulfilling and I felt more accomplished than earning my 4-year degree.

I recently graduated from Fullstack Academy in Chicago. After graduating from college with a degree in Economics, I decided to attend a coding bootcamp. After doing some research for a full week, I came across three great programs: Fullstack Academy, App Academy, and Hack Reactor. I found both three bootcamps to have similar challenging and immersive learning experience to their students. Why I decided to attend Fullstack in the end is that the Chicago office had a group of 20 students while the other two bootcamps had 40+ students. It was a major deal-breaker, given high-quality instructors and motivated students in all three academies. Having just taken Intro to CS and Data Structures in college, I was one of the least experienced programmers in the group. Some people have gotten advanced degrees in Computer Science, or other disciplines, or even have worked as engineers for a few years. Although I was at first scared, I realized that it was actually better for me because every student in my cohort became my teacher and mentor when I struggled. It was definitely challenging but I found the experience to be very helpful, especially that I was able to land a software engineering position after graduation because of my coding skills and technologies I learned from Fullstack Academy. If you are deciding if Fullstack would be the right choice, just remember, if you promise yourself that you will work hard, you will make it and walk out from the program with valuable and skills that are in high-demand!

It had been a while since a had an experience as intense as these 3 months at Fullstack.
I learned so much about about coding (what I was here to learn) and about live and myself.
This is a very hard and intense program, it is definetly not for everyone, but this is exactly what I wanted and what I needed.

The instructors are the best, as awesome coding masters and as human beings.
The people I studied with were incredible: strong, smart, supportive, amazing. Every single one of them.

It is obvious culture is very important at Fullstack and I will always be thankfull for that. If you are going to spend 3 month practically living in this space with this people. you want the best environment posible, and I definitely found it here.

I would recommend this experience and this school without any doubt.
I just graduated 2 days ago, and future is just so exciting right now,

I graduated from Fullstack Academy's Software Engineering Immersive program in Chicago in the fall of 2017. Recently, I was able to land on an job offer from a software company in Chicago with extensive amount of help from Fullstack. No matter what background you are coming from, I can tell you for sure that you will be really challenged and will grow as a self-sufficient developer in this program.

Before coming to Fullstack, I worked as a software developer for 4 years. As I was leaving my old company, I wanted to get more education and learn about new technologies in programming to make myself more marketable. So, I was deciding between a bootcamp or a graduate degree in computer science. After finding out about Fullstack and reading numerous amount of positive reviews of the immersive program, I decided to give it a shot.

Immersive program's curriculum is divided into 2 phases: junior phase and senior phase. Junior phase is where you learn all about computer science (data structure, sorting, algorithm, etc) and web tech (Javascript, Node, SQL, jQuery, React, Redux, etc). Senior phase is where you get to use what you learned from junior phase with 3 main projects. From senior phase, you are also prepared for the real-world coding/job interviews. Both of phases are very intensive and fast-paced.

To be honest, I didn't think this program will be much challenging given that I already had years of experience in software development. However, I was very wrong. From day 1in junior phase, I was challenged and learned a lot. From many of lessons (or as they call it "workshop") in class, you are challenged to dive deep into it and to understand the fundamental. Often, you are also challenged to build things from the scratch. I have found these types of challenges to be very useful as you prepare for the technical interviews.

Last but not least, people you work with are the best part about this program. All staffs, including instructors and fellow students, are very helpful and friendly. Especially, all of instructors had tons of knowlege in programming, and there were so much to learn from the. Also, I found my classmates to be all smart, passionate, and driven. These were type of people I would love to work with in my work. I believe Fullstack's admission staffts have been doing great job of carefully selecting right people to join the program.

I hope my review was helpful. If you are like me thinking of chaning your careers in software development or just want to start fresh, I highly recommend you take this program.

I applied to FullStack right out of high school through NYC's Tech Talent Pipeline. I can't recommend them enough. David is passionate about the curriculum and feedback from students. The instructors are very knowledgeable and always willing to lend a helping hand. The teaching fellows are invested in teaching everything they learned from their cohort. My peers were nothing short of engaged, determined, and supporting of each other. Career success won't hold back the punches on critique of your resume and online presence. With the help of FSA I am now a software engineer at a financial firm in NY before the age of 20. Can't recommend enough no matter your age or experience.

I am reviewing Fullstack again because I sent in my review far too early in my job hunting process. Originally I felt that the career support was not very helpful for people who were mid career (and this is a common perception, that the career services are catered towards people more or less straight out of college). But I was so, so wrong. I met a bunch of firms at Fullstack's Hiring Day and literally just signed my offer from the first employer I met at hiring day. I got 3 offers and the career success team were extremely helpful in helping me navigate everything from turning DOWN my first six figure offer to flying out to Mountain View for my Google interview to reaching out to the Fullstack Alumni network to get more information for my eventual job offer that netted me 160k BASE. This is unreal and impossible for me to have conceived of without the help of Fullstack and without the opportunities created by Fullstack's Career Services people. I regret that I don't seem to be able to go back and edit my original review because I gave them a 4/5 because I'm a "nothing is perfect" kind of guy. But I was wrong. I stand by Fullstack through and through and if you still have doubts after reading this contact me so I can figure out what's wrong with you. @swyx on twitter.

Simply put, I had the drive to transition to a career as a software engineer, and Fullstack was the crucial piece in the puzzle that made it happen.

The course is incredibly intense, overwhelming and effective. Beyond the actual curriculum, Fullstack really teaches you how to be a software engineer. After the course, I was able to pick up new frameworks and tackle technical challenges more effectively as the entire bootcamp experience conditions you to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. It's a very powerful feeling to have knowing that you can pick almost any application and either be able to build it, or have full confidence in knowing you could teach yourself to. In my current job, I attribute both my aptitude at completing tasks, and work ethic to my experience in Fullstack.

Lastly, the members of my cohort were very good. Surrounded by people who (mostly don't have a technical background) but were successful with their own career paths. If you give motivated, competent people technical knowledge, they can build great things, and more over make each other even more great.

If you know becoming a developer is the path for you, the choice is a no-brainer. It'll be the hardest 13 weeks of your life, and it'll be totally worth it.

My time at Fullstack Academy was one of the most fun and fulfulling experiences I have ever had! I was already an experienced backend coder, but Fullstack helped me learn to get a project completely off the ground by myself with an experience of the entire stack and how to integrate all of the pieces. Every instructor was incredibly knowledgeable in their field and left me with valuable skills that have helped me every day of my new career. As a Fullstack Alumni, I am also part of a large community that continues to interact. I am constantly running into other alumni, even within my own company. I would recommend this course to anyone who truely loves coding and is either just starting out, or wants to learn all of the most relevant JavaScript libraries/frameworks in the industry.

The instructors are brilliant and approachable. I'd recommend Fullstack on their strength alone. The curriculum was fast paced and extensive and entirely applicable to the current environment. Also, Fullstack enrolls fantastic students -- I loved my cohort. Finally, I got my job directly from the Hiring Day event that the bootcamp hosts at the end of the program -- Fullstack is responsible for me achieving exactly what I intended when I applied.

Hello, I just graduated from Fullstack's July 2017 cohort. I did FreeCodeCamp before it but felt I needed to do a full bootcamp to "get good" and have people looking at my code and forcing me to use best practices which can be hard to find externally. I got all that at Fullstack. I got into Hack Reactor and Fullstack and went with Fullstack because 1) the admission interview was harder and 2) the anecdotes I could gleam indicated that there was a caring culture at Fullstack. Now 4 months later I can say that it is true. I also live-podcasted my entire bootcamp journey for total transparency and it is available at impostor-syndrome.org. Its meant for -all- people considering bootcamps, not just Fullstack, and if you want a narrative, longitudinal study of what its like to go thru a bootcamp it's my contribution to the community. All the best. contact me @swyx on twitter for more.

I attended Fullstack Academy’s Software Engineering Immersive program in Chicago in the summer of 2016. This was their first session held in Chicago, with a class size of 14 students, 2 instructors, and a ‘Fellow’ (a former student, like a TA). Frankly, I have nothing but good things to say about the program.

I applied right out of high school, planning on taking a gap year and developing a strong skillset before attending school the following fall. However, I was able to find an incredible opportunity shortly after graduating Fullstack (which I certainly could not have gotten without going through the program) and I have put off college indefinitely. I was the youngest member of the class, but I think that goes to show that your background, skills, and experiences (or lack thereof) aren’t as important to Fullstack as your attitude and desire to learn.

**Classroom Environment**
The most impressive part of Fullstack was the sense of community among the other students and instructors. Fullstack does an incredible job of finding passionate team-players that you actually want to work with - which is good because the vast majority of the curriculum involves pair programming or group projects. Because of the small student-teacher ratio, you get a lot of individual attention and never have to vie for instructors’ time. Fullstack clearly places an emphasis on the student community, devoting a few hours each Friday to round table discussions about how everyone is progressing and having a single student or two talk about themselves to allow classmates to get to know each other on a more personal level.

**Curriculum**
Fullstack’s curriculum is constantly adapting and evolving to keep up with the latest trends in the industry (which is quite impressive given the quick rise and fall of frameworks in the JavaScript ecosystem). Though I certainly have a biased perspective, I think JavaScript is the most practical language to learn in any bootcamp-like program. It is already one of the most widely used languages, and its popularity is only growing as the Node.js ecosystem matures. The reality of the tech industry is that it evolves rapidly, but the ubiquitous presence of JavaScript across the stack, there is no doubt it will be around for the foreseeable future.

At the end of the day, just about everything you could want to know is available somewhere online for free. But working for hours on your own without the support of knowledgable instructors or a community of peers will not yield the same results as an immersive program Fullstack. It’s certainly a big commitment of time, money, and energy, but I don’t think there’s a better way to prepare yourself for a career in web development.

I attended the Grace Hopper (GH) Program at Fullstack (FS) Academy as a student, then became a Fullstack fellow for Remote Cohort #1, and still teach an occasional preparatory class when demand is high. Needless to say, Fullstack's got me hooked!

If you want to learn to code, FS/GH know how to get the job done and are constantly iterating on it to up the success of future cohorts. In a field where the "next big thing" changes pretty much every week, keeping up with the technology is hard to do as an individual, let alone an entire school! FS is committed to making sure its students learn the most widespread and promising technologies: as a student, I watched instructors learning React just in time to teach it to incoming students when we switched from Angular, and then I did the same as a teaching fellow 6 weeks later!

The instructors are all top-notch, and they each have their own quirky teaching styles, which makes coming to class all day, every day fun and exciting. There's always coffee and cereal to fight off the afternoon coding lull or feed the I-just-rolled-out-of-bedders.

The career success team is out of this world and go above and beyond their job descriptions to help grads get exceptional jobs all over the country. They have placed FS/GH grads at companies as bootcamp grad #1 (myself included!) and built up some pretty sweet networks along the way. Seriously, they're committed to getting you a job after graduation and have often given me advice and action plans way outside of work hours.

The *immersive* part of the curriculum is no joke, but I never could have learned so much, built such strong lifelong friendships, or appreciated the sunshine so wholeheartedly in any other program! FS is certainly one of a kind, and I chose to attend because of stellar reviews like these!

TL/DR: Fullstack was the best educational investment of my life. You will learn a ton. If you are considering it but on the fence, just do it.

From a dollar-to-learning standpoint, I got much more value from Fullstack than I did from my 4 year degree at NYU.

Before Fullstack, I spent the better part of a year coding on my own and evaluating bootcamps. I wanted to learn full stack Javascript. I hemmed and hawed and couldn't decide because I was too afraid of writing a big check to some fly-by-night operation and getting ripped off.

I contacted several alums from Fullstack. They all gave it a resounding endorsement (and they were all employed as software developers). So I settled in on Fullstack because it seemed like the best option to get the skills I wanted. I was not disappointed.

Here's why:

It is intensely practical.

This is not to suggest that you get no theory, you do. But the bulk of the program is about writing code. So you spend a lot of time and energy and focus writing code. Everything in the environment is a conspiracy to get you writing code.

If you love to build things, Fullstack gives you lots of opportunities to do it while in the program and equips you to make great stuff as soon as you graduate. Practicality wins.

They have thought a lot about how to teach.

The founders and team have put a lot of thought into how to teach tech. It isn't some disorganized mess of pre-recorded tutorial modules that you can find online.

There is a structure and, even though it isn't always clear why you're doing a particular part while you're in it, you quickly discover that the process builds a tree of understanding. You'll learn the problem about some approach to development, struggle with it in vanilla JS, and only then get the library or framework that was built to resolve that problem.

The early part of the program uses test-driven development to help you get used to reading tests and inferring implementation from a desired functionality. I loved this approach.

After you struggle with the tests, the discovery of an answer feels like a grand, life-altering insight. I'm convinced this trial-and-error helps you learn and remember things more deeply than lecture, reading, or a repeat-after-me video tutorial.

The instructors are wizards.

You are not taught by recent grads, but by legit software engineers who really know their stuff. The environment in Fullstack is ultra-smart. It helps you up your game. I didn't want to leave at the end because I knew I would miss spending so much time around such smart people. My instructors, Omri and John, were both great programmers and great people. I will miss learning from them.

The founders actually care about the business.

The two founders are still intimately involved in the business. You can feel in the environment that the business has their attention and that they're improving it. I have huge respect for them both, especially when I saw that David (one of the founders) was actually sitting in the room on our final day when we all gave feedback about the program. When it comes to 'caring for your students', talk is cheap. David's presence shows a true investment of time and attention that are the hallmarks of a dedicated entrepreneur.

The tech stack is in demand.

Full stack Javascript is huge on the market right now. There were tons of jobs available after graduation. It was not hard to get interviews based on companies' desire for Node.js/React.js devs.

You make friends with smart people.

Fullstack selects really smart people. Your peers will be people from finance, entrepreneurship, academia, or even software developers looking to update their skills. Hanging out with smart friends = you getting smarter. You'll end the program with a great group of friends.

It works.

If you do the work, the process works wondefully.

The graduation and placement stats speak for themselves and Fullstack has led the way in transparency in results.

My own experience: it isn't even a month since I graduated and I already landed an awesome full stack engineering job at an early-stage startup, which is exactly what I wanted when I signed up for Fullstack.

I attended Fullstack Academy in the February 2017 cohort. I had an excellent experience as a student. There are a few things that make Fullstack stand out:

1.) There is a rigorous and well run remote Foundations program that you complete prior to the immersive part of the bootcamp. You are given video lectures, have access to online office hours, are assigned a mentor that is a Fullstack grad, and take checkpoints to make sure that you are on track. This prepares students well for the bootcamp, helps students transition from coding as a hobby to coding all-day everyday, and ensures that everyone is ready to hit the ground running with brand new material in week 1 of the immersive program. This allows Fullstack to keep its standards high for its students, without creating the overtly competitive environment that I've heard about at other top bootcamps.

2.) The career success team is really excellent. They are former technical recruiters who:

b - have excellent connections, with the Fullstack alumni network, other technical recruiters, and other professional connections from their years of experience.

The career success team is prepared not just to help you find any job, or any high paying job, but a job that matches your interests that you will find professionally fulfilling and that will lead to long term career growth. I think that this is unique among bootcamps. Lots of bootcamps have some form of demo day or hiring day, or TAs that give job application advice, but none that I've seen have the professional level of career support that I've seen at Fullstack.

Last fall, I made the decision to attend Fullstack Academy's 13-week Software Engineering Immersive course. Now almost six months after graduating, I feel confident in saying that it was a worthwhile investment. FSA is a constructive experience for people who are confident that they want to inhabit a technical position and benefit from structured, immersive education.

I wrote this to help people that are on the fence about enrolling in an in-person programming course. I start off by documenting the plan you should take to first validate your decision to enroll in one of these programs. Then if you've confirmed this is the path for you, I discuss the pros and cons of Fullstack Academy and why I feel it is a leader among coding bootcamps.

Preparation FSA

The high cost and time commitment of coding bootcamps should indicate that they are not something to do on a whim. In fact, when compared to traditional universities, their cost-to-time ratio is equivalent to several prestigious institutions. As with most things in life, you should first educate yourself on what these programs entail.

If you are considering making this move, there are three general steps you should take:

Get Advice from Past Graduates

Seek out people who have completed the course and gone on to work at companies similar to your interest. Simply peruse LinkedIn or AngerlList and you will probably find a number of these people. In my prep, I reached out to five former FSA students. Out of those five, four of them got back to me. I spoke with one on the phone for awhile and the three others wrote me lengthy, detailed opinions on their experience.

When making important life decisions like this I always feel it is best to speak with people who have been through the ringer. Learn from people who have been in your shoes, preparing to make that same decision. This is your chance to ask real people (not paid employees) things like:

- What did you get out of the course?
- Was it a manageable workload?
- Were the instructors helpful in learning the material?

These interactions were by far the best thing I could have done to help assure me that I was making the right decision.

Determine Your Path

By now you (hopefully) know that you want to take your career in a more technical direction, but maybe you are not sure how that desire will manifest itself. Sure, you can be a software developer, but maybe you are a creative with a greater appreciation of design? What about product management? A mathematics nut who would actually be better off exploring data science?

It turns out that a lot of people are interested in tech, but aren't actually passionate about development. And that is fine! Do yourself a favor and educate yourself on the different paths available to someone in this field. All of these alternative fields are growing and worthy pursuits of your time and there are bootcamps out there for almost all of these disciplines. It is reassuring to know that you explored all these possibilities before jumping into one in particular. Most of these fields are related in some capacity, but there is rarely significant overlap. It is much harder to move into a design role when you just spent 13 weeks investing your time in a development course. It's certainly not impossible, but that time/money might have been better spent on a UX bootcamp.

Start Learning

If you've made it this far, then you're pretty certain that the development path is for you. Excellent! Now get to work.

Preparation for the bootcamp needs to begin months in advance of the actual course. The quality schools necessitate that you come in with a solid grasp on the fundamentals of programming and the language that they teach. More importantly, the longer and more in-depth you prepare in advance, the more you will get out of the course material once you are on-site.

Here are some great resources to help you prepare for and supplement your journey:

- Computer Science Course Videos: Recently, several top institutions (MIT and Stanford among them) have been distributing their beginner CS course online for free. These are great starting points for the fundamentals.
- Free Code Camp: Learn to code with one of the most collaborative and resourceful online coding communities.
- The New Boston: A huge collection of free video tutorials on CS, web design, and more.
- You Don't Know JS: I am not one to recommend programming books, but this series is key if you intend to truly understand JavaScript from the compiler up.
- HackerRank/Codewars: Coding challenges of progressing difficulty to help you practice and level-up your programming chops.
- Functional Programming Exercises: Learn how to effectively use functional programming in JavaScript, an increasingly popular pattern.
- Team Treehouse/Code School/Codecademy: Although there are plenty of free options above, these paid services contain a great breadth and depth of courses covering most popular languages and concepts.

Here is what I love most about this step: once you have spent enough time learning, you are faced with a crucial question. Why do I need to attend a bootcamp when I have all of these free or lower cost options available to me?

The truth is, you don't...

I know several professional developers who have no formal background in development and learned everything they know from the abundance of online resources. It is definitely possible if you are disciplined and take a concerted approach to learning the right things in the correct manner.

Where I will say bootcamps differentiate themselves is in their ability to provide regimented learning and hands-on support. Most online options fall short in that area and it is exactly there where I see most people fall off the wagon in their attempt to take on learn independently. This is exactly why I chose to attend FSA. Being able to completely focus on learning and not worry about establishing my own curriculum was instrumental to streamlining my mental process throughout the course.

With these steps complete, we come to a final fork in the road. If you still think that the software development program will suit you best, keep on reading for my take on FSA.

The Pros

Structured Learning: I alluded to this in the previous section, but I really cannot overstate this fact. Where FSA excels is in their ability to provide a regimented curriculum that logically progresses from CS fundamentals all the way to building a web application from the ground up. To aid in learning all of the concepts along the way, instructors present well-composed lectures that aid in students' understanding of how and why each step is important. If you are genuinely interested in the material, there will be nary a dull moment throughout the course.

Applied Learning: Not only is the learning sequence logical, but applicable "modules" are provided at each step to cement your understanding of the concepts. Instead of simply just discussing theory, these modules have you actually implement what you are learning. There are two things I loved about this format:

Each assignment had varying degrees of difficulty embedded in the module. Each one would cover the basics, but for those progressing at a faster rate, therewould be an advanced section to take you to the next level. This was never required, but super helpful in truly understanding the nature of what we were learning.

These challenges were better than anything I generally come across on the web. Not only did they help you grasp the material you were learning, they aid your understanding of how the technology itself works. This afforded a deeper level of comprehension and truly was transformative for my thought process. No longer am I content with using a tool. It made me a better engineer by imparting a curiosity in how my tools worked so that I am better able to compare and leverage the ones out there.

Guidance: As someone who rarely took advantage of office hours in college, this was instrumental for my learning. The teachers were all former software developers and had a strong grasp of the concepts being taught. Each cohort at FSA also has a group of previous graduates, known as fellows, who assist in the learning process. I liken them to graduate students at a college, mentoring undergraduates in the studies still fresh in their minds. Most importantly, there is rarely a time when you cannot seek the help of one of these people. The "always on" mindset of the staff was instrumental in my learning experience.

Full Stack JavaScript: Most bootcamps offer a Ruby-focused curriculum. FSA and a few others focus on JavaScript. Having had the benefit of formerly working in the tech space, I was aware that the JavaScript language was blowing up. Between Node.js and the resurgence of ECMAScript standardization, it was clear that JavaScript was the language in which to invest. The TIOBE Index for programming languages is one of many reputable sources that shows compelling data behind this trend. Full stack JS also means less context switching, which in turn means more time to focus on learning the fundamentals. I really think this is the way to go moving forward.

The Cost: To be clear, I am not saying that FSA, or any other coding bootcamp for that matter, is cheap. What I am suggesting is that when compared to most universities, it is cost competitive. Take a look at this chart to get a sense of what I mean. The cost of the FSA Software Engineering Immersive program is right on par with the University of Michigan's (my alma mater) annual tuition for out of state students. Of course this doesn't take grants, federal aid, and other educational loan programs into account, but it does suggest a comparative cost model. Not to mention that as a graduate of both programs, I strongly believe that most FSA graduates are better prepared for a real-world development job than many Computer Science Engineering graduates from UM.

The Cons

Fullstack Academy does not come without its flaws. A few things to note:

FSA is a Lean Startup: Never forget that FSA is itself a "startup" of sorts. This means that it operates more like a business than it does an institution of higher learning. This is not inherently a bad thing, but it does mean that they try to minimize costs in non-essential areas. Like using free Slack accounts and buying second-rate monitors and cables. I don't think these are imperative to the learning experience, but do not expect to roll into a classroom with shiny new equipment and stand-up desks.

Not everyone is a "Teacher": Let me start this one off by saying all the teachers were professionals and adequately educated on software development. Unfortunately — and this should not be surprising — being a good developer does not make you good at teaching. While FSA had their standout instructors, there were those that rambled and did not present well-structured lectures. Most made up for this inadequacy during informative one-on-one conversations, but some lectures added little value to the material.

Conclusion

Based on the above breakdown, I would say the positives of the FSA course far outweigh the negatives. I believe you would be a good candidate for the course if you:

- want to quickly ramp up your technical skills
- are confident that programming is your thing
- have done serious research and preparation

In short, FSA provides a concise, focused, and relevant curriculum to help you transition into the software development world. If you see yourself in this world, why not explore this possibility?

When I decided to change careers and commit to web development, I knew that I needed to choose the best boot camp in Chicago. I did my due diligence and found Fullstack Academy.

Fullstack's excellence begins with its application process. It is not easy to get in, but it IS worth it. Study, take some online courses, do some reading -- make sure you are ready to commit because boot camp is no joke!

The instruction at Fullstack is truly phenomenal. In addition to their solid knowledge base, Nick and Connie bring an enthusiasm that is infectious and they make coming to class a joy every day. (Bonus points: Nick makes AMAZING cookies -- ask him about it and he will deliver.) I was fortunate enough to be a part of a wonderful cohort, and when we graduated, I was literally brought to tears thinking about how much we had accomplished together. We were truly a Fullstack family.

Post graduation, I felt fully comfortable asking Nick and Connie for advice in my job search. Within 4 weeks, I received 2 job offers at companies I was really excited about. During my interviews, both companies were pleasantly surprised by how knowledgable and capable a boot camp grad could be. Truly, I owe it all to Fullstack's education and preparation.

Fullstack Academy is more than just a code bootcamp - it is the next step, should one decide to attend, to advance one's career as well as one's self.

I am a graduate of Fullstack's Web Immersive Program beginning in September of 2016 (1609 cohort). I've watied a while to write this review in order to go through the entire process and let my ideas settle instead of writing an impulsive review and after 4 months of graduation, I am ready to write about my experiences.

I had finished a short contract position as a developer working on a back-end task scheduling program at a large company. Near the end of the position, we worked on front-end functionality and it piqued my interest. After looking and listening to many reviews, I applied and decided to being Fullstack Academy's Web Immersive Program in New York City.

The first month of remote foundations helps establish fundamentals of programming in Javascript and encourages you to interact with the rest of the cohort through their forums. It was a great place to start meeting people and getting involved with them before starting with them on campus.

After fundamentals, the immersive begins on campus. My cohort was about 40 students and we did not realize on the first day that we would become such a close family and masters at our craft, thanks to Fullstack Academy. For the next three months, we learned about wed development, went to seminars on saturdays to expand our development knowledge (on campus), grueling worked on projects to put on our resumes on our own and with teams. We all spent anywhere from 8-12 hours a day together working through problems, challenges, and helping each other along the gureling program. Nearing the end, the career team comes in and helps us prepare however they can for the upcoming search be preparing our online persona as well as our programmer profiles on paper and online.

My biggest take away is not only the web development skills, but the family I established at Fullstack Academy. They are there for you when you're down and struggling with yourself from the job search, they are there when you're successful with the search, and they're there when you need some guidance. I've experienced a great many feelings after finishing Fullstack Academy, and the people I have met there have been there for me the entire step of the way.

Not only did I leave Fullstack with the experience I need to enter a development market, but I met some of the greatest people I know today on that campus in NYC. If anyone asks me today about what bootcamp i would recommend, I would easily recommend Fullstack Academy not only for the education and academia, but to meet some of the best people you can ever meet.

Looking back, Fullstack Academy was easily one of the best career moves that I made in my life. I find myself constantly recommending it to all of my friends and acquaintances looking for something better in life. It’s easy to fall into complacency and just assume that you are stuck at a job or career that you hate, but Fullstack really gives you an opportunity to reinvent yourself.

The most notable thing about Fullstack is its culture, one which I’ve never been a part of in my life. It really motivates and challenges you to break out of your shell and really connect with the people around you. I’ve met some of the smartest people and made some life-long friends and despite all of the challenges that come with re-programming your brain in 13-weeks, there was always a friendly face to help you through any crazy trouble you may be struggling with.

Even now I still feel the ripple effect of Fullstack Academy. The community is growing so large, and there is always something bringing me back whether it be the alumni events, old cohort mates looking to catch up, or interviews with new Fullstack grads. Needless to say, my company has since hired three Fullstackers all of whom are doing excellent work, it makes me proud to say that I went to Fullstack Academy.

I graduated Fullstack Academy’s immersive cohort around mid Feb 2017. Loved it so much, and I guess they liked me too, because they offered the fellowship position for another 3 months( Accepted the offer immediately :) )! That felt pretty good since it the fellowship is pretty selective. So I think I can offer a unique perspective from being on the inside going through the program as well as someone outside looking in. It was really amazing seeing the wide range of backgrounds my classmates and students came from. Watching the students grow and learn so fast and knowing that I helped in some way was really rewarding.

I thought what was really great about Fullstack aside from the great instructors and strong curriculum was actually the culture. While it did feel like an intensive bootcamp during the workshops it also felt like just hanging out and learning with a bunch of your friends all the time. There was just this feeling that everyone was there to help everyone else. I think this helped foster the learning environment just that much more. By the end of the program I felt like our cohort bonded a ton and I feel like they are some of my closest friends now too. Bi Weekly Board Game nights with free pizza definitely helped with that too!

As a teaching fellow I definitely saw how much effort instructors and teaching fellows work to make sure students learn as much as they can. Tons of office hours before class, after class, and even during lunch. Extra review lectures were done whenever possible as well. One of the most awesome things was watching the students learn so fast even though I had gone through the same program just a a couple weeks prior. Last week everyone was struggling learning React and Redux. Next week everyone is building a Fullstack app. Pretty amazing honestly.

If you’re interested in going to fullstack or just coding in general. I would start off with the simple Code Academy JavaScript track and see if you like it. After you finish that, if you enjoy it and are interested in trying to get accepted into an immersive bootcamp I would do CodeWars till you can do 6kyu problems pretty easily and some 5kyus. Definitely the best decision of my life.